


To Earth

by afangirlsplaylist



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Angst, Cancer, Death, Family, Friendship, Multi, Song Inspired
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-26
Updated: 2017-03-26
Packaged: 2018-10-11 08:48:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10460784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afangirlsplaylist/pseuds/afangirlsplaylist
Summary: It is common knowledge among doctors that every terminal patient has good days and bad days, up until there aren’t any days at all. (Inspired by lyrics from Safe and Sound by Taylor Swift ft Civil Wars)





	

* * *

  _**♫ I remember tears streaming down your face when I said I’ll never let you go ♫** _

* * *

It is common knowledge among doctors that every terminal patient has good days and bad days, up until there aren’t any days at all. The whole experience was a demented rollercoaster with nothing but an inevitable plunge at the end, and no one, neither family nor patient, wanted to ride it. Some days Rhett would be laughing, strumming his guitar and feeling as happy as was possible. Other days he could barely hold his guitar at all, closing his eyes and listening to Merle Haggard on repeat to quell the quiet.

Link thought that maybe Rhett was scared of that silence, or else just scared of the dark thoughts he’d be confronted by if he dwelled on it for too long. He at least seemed determined, while he still had the strength, to refuse to feed that quiet when he could avoid it. He talked to people like he was attempting to live out every conversation he was going to miss, treating Link like he was trying to relive their entire friendship every time they saw each other.  

So when he almost stopped talking altogether, Link had all but ordered him not to let go, giving it to him straight on one of the worst days.

“You gotta fight brother, you’re not ready yet.” Link said sternly, although he was gentle as he leaned forward to brush Rhett’s hair away from his forehead and plant a tender kiss there.

“Don’t put your lips on me.” Rhett complained, scrunching up his face.

“Why? You can’t do nothing about it.” Link said with a grin, pressing more kisses to his cheeks as Rhett squirmed.

He egged on the pathetic struggle to prolong the moment of liveliness in Rhett’s squirms, or really any time that Rhett was lively. The movement and sounds all reminded him that Rhett was still there, still breathing and very much alive. It was hard to imagine that there was ever a time when he didn’t realize how precious that was, or considered the fragility of his friend’s body with its beating heart and sparking nerves. Rhett had become such an unbending constant in his life that he took it for granted that he would always be there until he found out he wouldn’t be.

Rhett had made him suffer two days of radio silence after he’d got the news, with nothing but the knowledge that Rhett was sick and a single text saying they’d need to talk soon. His fear only increased when Rhett decided to take them back home to tell him, giving little reason for the trip other than wanting to go home. Link found it ominous too that their wives and children were traveling separately, probably to give them time to talk alone. He almost wished they hadn’t, since he would have felt safer and less afraid of how bad the coming news would be if he wasn’t alone to hear it. Unfortunately, as he learned the hard way that day, all bad news was bad news no matter how you spin it. 

“Rhett you’re scaring me a bit here.” Link confessed for the third time that trip, eyeing his friend as they drove towards the river. “What’s happening?”

Rhett looked like he was close to breaking but he just gripped the steering wheel tighter. “I want to go for the rocks for this.” 

Link wanted to argue the point but he didn’t, allowing Rhett to lead them until they reached the rocks.

The rocks were the same as they had ever been, tucked away in a spot by the water. From the moment the two of them had seen them, they’d always found it perfect that they were angled in just the right way for them to talk to each other, and it felt just as natural to settle into the rocky seats now.

Link looked up expectantly from the lower rock, waiting as Rhett worked up the nerve to talk. He seemed to decide that ripping off the band-aid was better than pulling it off slowly, so when he said it he just came out with it. 

“Link I… I have cancer.” He told him, finding it easier now that he started. “They don’t think I have a lot of time.”

Link’s heart had started beating extra fast the second the word cancer left Rhett’s lips, but now he jumped to his feet so quickly he knocked his shoe on his rock, ignoring the pain. “No.” He said automatically. “No.”

“Yes.” Rhett confirmed sadly. 

“A-are they sure?” Link asked. He was shaking now, his ears unwilling to accept what he just heard. 

That was until Rhett managed to devastate him and kill all hope with a simple of nod his head, the tears he’d been fighting falling freely now. “I’m dying Link.”

There was a moment of time where Link didn’t say anything, still too numb to cry yet. There were all the questions he had to ask of course; _how long? What kind? What can they do?_ but they seemed pointless in the face of the reality that he would be losing him. Soinstead, he just walked over to the high rock and sat on the edge of it facing Rhett, breaking the rules of the system.

“Say something damn it.” Rhett asked after a few seconds.

These words pushed Link over the edge, angry sobs now running from his eyes as he thumped Rhett’s chest lightly with a fist. “You can’t leave me, man.” 

Rhett let him get it out, taking the small hits as he rubbed Link’s back comfortingly. “I won’t let you go, brother.” He’d promised.

* * *

_**♫ When all those shadows almost killed your light ♫** _

* * *

Getting closer to the end Rhett’s body did its best to scare them all, sending their worlds screeching to a halt whenever they had to rush him to the hospital. The weaker Rhett got the more terrifying each hospital visit became until Link was scared to even answer the phone when Jessie called. He always did, however, making the hospital his second home whenever the McLaughlin’s needed him. 

The doctors warned them every visit that the time might be coming, but they chose not to believe it, even as they lead Rhett out the hospital doors and breathed a collective sigh of relief. The only question that remained was how much longer the gentle giant’s body could hold up against the cancer. So Link tried everything - making him angry, getting angry, filming - anything to bring out the fight in the otherwise sweet soul. For a long time, Rhett took up the challenge with gusto, always up for a verbal spar even when he was almost permanently hospitalized.

* * *

_**♫ I remember you said don’t leave me here alone ♫** _

* * *

It pained Rhett to do this to Link. His logical mind told him repeatedly that it wasn’t his fault but it still felt like he was betraying him for the first time in over two decades. Sometimes when Link thought he was sleeping he was lying there listening to him cry into the side of the hospital bed, the heartbreak piercing him to the core. A big part of him wished he could slip away now rather than have to suffer through the horrible sound, but he kept fighting to punish himself. _You told him you wouldn’t leave him,_  he thought. _You deserve to hear what you’ve done to him._

He knew it was true, so he only let one tear fall from his closed eyes while he focused on the sound of the man beside him. It was Link he was leaving to sit alone at their desk, trying to keep a strong face as he looked into the camera and delivered the news to the beasts. It was Link who would have to close the doors on Mythical Entertainment, reducing the prizes and happy times to a bunch of boxes and trash. It was Link who would have to say goodbye to his second family, attempting to type references and emails through tears. It was Link who would be reminded of different memories with each person he wrote about. It was Link who would be left to hold Jessie and step in for his kids, and it was Link who was losing a friend.

Really, when Rhett thought about it, he had the easier job. He didn’t have to do anything but fall asleep a final time, as quietly and peacefully as the pain medication allowed. He’d heard people say that it was easier to die in war than it was to go home and rebuild, a concept he had just now come to understand completely. If the fight against his body was the war then it was definitely easier to give it up rather than face the devastation and endings that were waiting for the others. 

* * *

_**♫ Hold onto this lullaby even when the music’s gone, gone ♫** _

* * *

On the nights when Link would kick Jessie out of the hospital to spend a night in her own bed, Link liked to sing to him, going without backing once Rhett got too sick to sing along. The sound would ease him to sleep at night and wake him up like chirping birds when the sunlight filtered through the blinds and Link began again.

He cried hardest when Link sang Ben for him, the joint meaning behind the song not lost on either of them.

“You reckon you’ll see Ben again?” Link asked, tipping some water into Rhett’s mouth as he spoke.

“I don’t know.” Rhett said weakly.

“You think you’ll see me again?” Link questioned further.

Rhett turned his head and looked blankly into Link’s eyes, hardly blinking and looking more tired than ever. “I don’t know.” He repeated.

Link had asked that question many times since Rhett had been diagnosed. Usually, he would be greeted with a firm “I better,” but this answer broke him inside. He’d never thought to mentally prepare himself for a time when Rhett would lose faith in them, nor had he ever thought there would ever be a question of whether they’d always be together. 

He didn’t want to have to.

* * *

_**♫ Just close your eyes, you’ll be alright ♫** _

* * *

Rhett seemed to sense when his last day was coming before any of them did, getting panicky whenever one of them so much as stepped out of the room. To a person so obsessed with layers and preoccupations the final seconds were dynamite. He could see the lit fuse burning ever closer to the wick, and he wanted to hold on to his current layer for as long as he could until it exploded. Only this time, the layer was his family. 

Thankfully Rhett was home and comfortable for that day, but his plea to be with them still made it hard for Link to leave that night. Even then he slept with his phone by his head, one ear turned towards it in anxious anticipation. 

He half expected it to wake him within the hour but it was after midnight by the time the phone rang, making him flinch and jerk awake. He fumbled to answer it and shoved it to his ear, trying not to look or sound scared out of his mind when Christy woke up beside him. “Jessie?" 

“He won’t sleep, he thinks he won’t wake up.” Jessie cried through the phone.

Link’s heart was torn by the now familiar sound of her sobs even if he was glad the news wasn’t even worse. It was an unspoken rule between the four of them that Jessie would seek out Christy if her and Rhett were going a hard time, and naturally, Rhett would go to Link. So he had very rarely ever heard her cry up until recently when he had the misfortune of hearing it every other day. He wasn’t happy about the change.

“You should come over. If he’s right…” Jessie trailed off, unwilling to finish the end of the sentence.

“I’m on my way.” Link said immediately.

He was already stuffing his phone in his pocket and gathering the kids by the time Christy started getting dressed, feeling thankful when they didn’t hesitate to hurry to the car. He was even more thankful when the kids didn’t ask any questions. Lincoln and Lilly were old enough to understand and Lando was hardly old enough to keep himself awake for the ride, so a calm quiet hung over the car.

Christy held his hand for as long as it was safe to while he drove, keeping hold even when squeezed back a little hard for comfort. She left his side only when they’d hurried through the Mclaughlin’s front door, keeping the kids busy so Link and Jessie could go upstairs. They argued the point at first but she dismissed them, understanding completely that Rhett needed his two loves.

When they accepted her point, they climbed the stairs, Link following Jessie’s pace because he was unsure of how quickly he wanted to get to what was waiting for him. All he knew when Jessie let him into her room was he wouldn’t have wanted it to be this. The only way he could describe it was Rhett looked like he was already half gone, lying still and looking more exhausted than Link could ever remember seeing him. 

“Your wife told you to rest bo.” Link scolded him, throwing off his jacket and walking over to the bed.

“Can’t.” Rhett rasped, staring at the ceiling as he struggled to get his words out. “If I do it’s over.”

Link shook his head and reached out to grab his hand, rubbing a thumb gently over his knuckles. “It’ll be okay.” He promised, looking down at the floor to breathe deeply and gather himself before saying again. “It’ll be okay.”

Rhett sighed and closed his eyes, although he still didn’t fall asleep completely. “If you say so.”

Link kept hold of his hand till Rhett gave in and finally fell asleep, letting it go to turn around and see Jessie standing with her back to them, unable to watch. Without a word he walked up behind her and turned her around by her shoulders, pulling her into a hug as she wept.

“You did good Jess.” He assured her, holding her tight. “He’s gonna be alright now.”

Link thought the two of them were surely out of tears for Rhett after all this time, but they still managed to cry together like they had some kind of endless supply. It wasn’t until Christy appeared to ask if she should bring the kids in to see Rhett that they managed to snap out of it.

* * *

  _**No one can hurt you now  
Come morning light, you and I’ll be safe and sound** _

* * *

Link wondered afterward whether Rhett had ever got to feel his last sunrise before he slipped away that morning, surrounded by their blended family. He liked to think, given the peaceful look he’d seen on his friend’s face, that he had. That was what he chose to believe anyway, taking strength from the thought since he knew how much Rhett had loved nature. It had to be a dream, Link told himself, for a naturalist to pass in sunlight.

As planned they eventually cremated and buried him in an elegant box crafted from some of the finest wood in his collection, making sure to keep enough to admire and remember him by (“From earth, return to earth”, Jessie had said). She herself kept a piece of Rhett in the small amount of ash that rested in the crystal of a necklace Rhett himself had commissioned for her. She rarely wore it, choosing to keep it safely tucked away unless she was having a day when she needed him close to her. For Link, Rhett made him promise to have the rest of the wood used or burned when it came time for him to join him, symbolically reuniting the other half of the whole. Link agreed because he liked the idea of the flames warming their families through both hard nights, reminiscent of the warmth and fire of their friendship.

Though he was asked by many people, Link didn’t sing at the funeral, or even at all for years afterward. Music had been something so deeply rooted in their friendship that singing without Rhett felt not just wrong but abhorrent, so the music felt wrong too. When he finally sang again it was the first time he’d been able to connect to music without thinking about Rhett, singing along to  _Stuck On You_  with Christy. He hadn’t realized that she’d ever known he’d stopped singing until he opened his mouth to vocalize and she cried. 

That night he sought out the star closest to where he imagined the star Rhett had bought to be, whispering an apology to it. It was a move to seek closure for himself more than anything else, but it still felt like he was gaining his friend’s permission to sing again. 

He’d felt awful at first when he’d got up to speak at the funeral and felt relief for the first time. Relief because he knew Rhett couldn’t feel pain like this anymore. He was far removed from the worst of his cancer and there was nothing, especially something as trivial as music, that could hurt him again. 

Still, he felt at peace with his blood brother when he looked up at the sky, feeling like he was releasing a long-held breath as he kept repeating: _sorry sorry sorry_ until it lost all meaning. 

He even felt lighter afterward, as if he really had released a lot of air from his lungs when he walked back inside. He had new freedom and certainty that he would love music again, and love it more than ever, for Rhett. Because when he’d looked up the glowing brightness of Rhett’s star he’d realized something.

He was safe now.

**Author's Note:**

> Soooo…. that hurt to write and possibly crossed a line or two. Oops? I was listening to the song the other day and then for some reason this happened. Comments are my everything so if you enjoyed the pain, didn’t get any feels at all, or hate me for this please drop a comment. 
> 
> Further listening: Safe and Sound obviously, but also If You Say So by Lea Michele.


End file.
